Why Is Galileo Important To The Study Of The Moon

Galileo was fundamental in the origin of lunar study. Being the first to use a telescope to observe the moon he was among the first to publicize opinions about its surface. This observance inspired many others all around the world to begin the study of the moon. One of the men he inspired was Alfred Wegener. Wegener proposed the idea of meteoric impact long before anyone else. However, the scientific community did not listen to him because of his theory about plate tectonic and Pangea. Alfred Wegner correctly deduced that the moon and its craters were created by some form of impact and that plate tectonics shifted and created the world we have today. Few men came to the same realizations that Wegener did but much later and unaware of his findings.

The scientific community could have been far ahead of its time had they only listened to him. Our studies on space and the moon would be much father advanced than it is now. Had his findings been accepted and published, men like Grove Karl Gilbert wouldn’t have fooled them into believing something without substantial evidence. Due to his stature in the community his volcanic proposal was accepted and derailed the lunar study even further. This demonstrates the importance of fully studying and testing an option before ruling it out. It also demonstrates that assumptions can derail an entire field of study. Grove Karl Gilberts assumption or rather lack of completely thorough testing lead to his derailment on the study of meteoric impact as a possibility. While his lack of testing led to the derailment there is an example of the opposite happening. In the case of Luis and Walter Alvarez their theory was doubted however, this led to even more testing of their theory. Since the scientific community doubted the theory they did everything they could to disprove the theory. Ultimately, they ended up proving the theory to be correct. Had the theory not been doubted so strongly it could have taken much longer to prove that meteoric impact did happen or put emphasis on finding the location of the “crater of doom.” After the Alvarez’s theory was proved correct it was then time to study the moon and find what it was made of. Sputnik’s flight into space greatly impacted the history of NASA and its time table. Had sputnik not been launched NASA and JFK may not have had the incentive to quickly get man to space. This may have delayed the time frame in which NASA made its